Population planning in Pakistan: issues in implementation and its impact.

Despite population planning programs for about 30 years, population growth in Pakistan has continued to increase. Many factors are cited that contribute to the increasing rate: 1) absence of a coherent approach to overcome the social and cultural constraints to the use of family planning; 2) ineffective information, education and communication campaign; 3) frequent changes in the organizational set up of the program; 4) inefficient management; and 5) lack of political commitment to family planning. However, rising trend in contraceptive use to nearly 18% in 1994-95 and to about 24% in 1996-97 indicated positive response of Pakistani partners to the adoption of family planning. Still, the impact of the program is low since only one-fifth of women in Pakistan use contraceptives. In view of all these, the government set strategies that focus more on quality of service and accessibility of family planning centers. There is a need to improve the population planning efforts and reduce the fertility rate in order to cut down population pressures on the country's physical and capital resources.